Marinette, the Clumsiest Witch
by Signless
Summary: Marinette is a struggling young witch battling grades, schoolyard bullies, mastering her magic... and heartbreak at the disappearance of her crush, Adrien Agreste! When a talking half-starved kitty appears on her doorstep, her mother encourages her to take him on as her familiar in hopes that it will bring stability to her magic. [renamed from: Something Seems Familiar]
1. A Riddle to be Solved

"Oh, Tikki, why is this so _hard?_" Marinette moaned, collapsing the upper half of her body onto her spell book, her arms curled beneath her head. A soft paw brushed against her hand, a comforting purr vibrating the tiny black body attached to it. She peeked out of the safety of her arms to see her (least) favorite cat, Chat Noir. The tiny cat sat back on his haunches upon realizing he had her attention, his chest puffing proudly as he licked the very paw he'd nudged her with. He'd shown up at her door weeks ago, filthy and half-starved, and she'd immediately taken pity on the poor alley cat. At first, she'd worried whether she'd have to hide him from her parents, but her mother had caught sight of him the very night she'd brought him in, and surprisingly had approved of the idea of Marinette having a familiar—something about it bolstering her magic?

Whatever the case, the kitty was both a blessing _and_ a curse, as any black cat was thought to be. He was a mischievous thing, always knocking things off her desk, clawing her drapes, and just when she considered sacrificing him to her patron deity Tikki, he'd smooth things over with a soft nuzzle and big, pleading green eyes. Then he'd teasingly remind her that her mother had strictly told her that he was _her_ responsibility, and "every witch should treat their familiar better than themselves!"

She hated this stupid talking cat sometimes, but admittedly tonight was not one of them. In fact, she was rather glad for his comfort as she failed _once more_ to cast the simplest of illumination spells. Her mother never quite knew how to make her feel better, not like her kitty, who still had yet to cease his purring. Sitting up properly, Marinette opened her arms to Chat, and for once, he more than happily curled himself in her arms. His green eyes closed in pleasure as she scratched his chin, smiling wearily as his purring intensified.

"Thanks, kitty." She murmured, burying her face in the soft fur of his neck.

"Anything for my Princess~" the sly kitty mewled, tail brushing her arm teasingly. The moment ruined, Marinette scoffed and pushed him out of her lap, causing him to yowl in anger as he flopped onto the floor unceremoniously.

"I thought cats landed on all fours?" She taunted, grinning at the look of displeasure he threw her way. His tail flicked angrily, eyes narrowed as he huffed and put his back to her, grooming his now ruffled fur meticulously. Marinette giggled, pushing out of her desk chair to join her familiar on the floor, crossing her legs beneath her and reaching out to smooth the sleek fur on Chat's back, her fingers cautious (in case he decided to claw at her) but loving. He didn't often swipe at her, but when he did, it drew blood—and led to immense guilt in her kitty. On the rare occasion that he clawed her, he'd snuggle up to her for hours, ears drooping and tiny pink tongue licking at her barely-noticeable wound.

Luckily, this was not one of these times, and although he threw her an irritable look, Chat relaxed his stance and stretched his spine upwards on instinct, purring once more at her gentle strokes.

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong, Chat…" Marinette sighed, mind moving back to her previous predicament. "_Maman_ said my magic should be strengthened by having a familiar, but I honestly haven't noticed much difference… I'm more likely to cause a block-wide black out than light a candle or lamp at will!"

Chat yawned lazily. "Maybe the problem isn't in your magic, but in yourself?" he suggested idly, licking his paw. Marinette flushed, flicking his ear and withdrawing sharply when his claws flashed towards her, barely missing her flesh. He hissed at her, ears flat against his skull, but when realizing his actions, he quickly drew back in shame.

"I didn't mean it like _that_, Princess! It's just that your magic is unstable because your emotions are running amok; you need to have more confidence in your abilities, and only then will your spells succeed!" he yipped, dancing back to avoid another flick at his ears.

Marinette scowled, opening her mouth to yell at him for being rude, when she paused. How did Chat know this? Familiars weren't supposed to know _this_ much about magic, right? She asked him as much, taking note of the indignant look he gained and the way he puffed himself up.

"I wasn't _always_ a cat, you know!" he huffed, seeming offended that she would ever think otherwise. Rolling her eyes, Marinette leaned forward and braced her arms on her knees, nose-to-nose with the feline.

"So what exactly were you before, hmm? A boggart? Maybe a newt?" she teased, relishing in the way his tail flicked with frustration, although his ears drooped when he realized she wasn't taking him seriously.

"No… don't you think it's strange that I'm the only familiar that can actually, _physically_ talk?" he hinted. He wanted more than anything to be able to just tell her the truth, but the very same curse that changed his form into that of a black cat kept him from being able to speak of his origins directly. He knew Marinette was frustrated with his constant riddles and vague half-truths, but there was no other way to tell her about the curse that bound him. If he couldn't just tell her that he was, in fact, her former classmate Adrien Agreste due to the curse, and if his fae blood prevented him from outright lying, the best he could hope for was that she'd be sharp enough to catch on. However, after weeks spent dropping hints and leaving clues, Chat (or Adrien) was beginning to lose hope he'd ever return to his true form. Within the first twenty minutes of being in Marinette's care, Chat had discovered her crush on his other form, and despite being slightly embarrassed (and not to mention baffled), he had hoped that it would only help her to figure out his identity. It didn't take long for that hope to be dashed, and so he came to the conclusion that rather than helping her, her infatuation blinded her in being able to see the boy trapped in the body of a cat.

_This sucks_, he thought with a sigh, watching as Marinette pondered his words. _Even if I _could _tell her the truth, she'd never believe me_. Still, he could see she was at least considering the possibility that he really _wasn't_ a familiar, and he knew she was smart enough to notice something off about him. Was there hope yet?

"Chat…" Marinette began slowly, fingers tapping her chin. "If you really aren't a familiar, then what are you?"

_"I'm a trickster, of sorts, from the highest of courts; _

_you'd know me quite well, but my name I can't tell. _

_If it's the truth you might seek, you need only peek; _

_every street has my face; you need only find the place!" _

He rhymed cheekily, internally cringing at the forced riddle that slipped past his lips. Every time he tried to clue her in on his identity, this happened. Honestly, he wasn't sure anymore whether it was from the curse or his fae nature. Either way, he hated it _almost_ as much as Marinette.

Said witch groaned in exasperation, covering her face with her hands at his lame attempt at a limerick. "Why can't you just _tell _me?" she grumbled, and if not for his feline-enhanced hearing, he might not have caught the muffled words. He shrugged his shoulders and sauntered away, pointedly ignoring the kitty bed she'd purchased weeks ago and making a dive for her own warm, sugar cookie-scented mattress. She absolutely _hated_ it when he made himself comfortable there, so it was with a not-so-secret glee that he curled up on her favorite pillow and got ready for a nap.

Nevertheless, Marinette left him to his own devices, riddles be damned, and hurriedly went about getting ready for school. Every witch needed an education, after all! …. Even if she couldn't cast a simple spell to save her life.


	2. Time for School

The walk to school was nothing worth mentioning; the morning was calm, warm and sunny, and Marinette eyed the missing person's posters featuring Adrien Agreste's face with growing sorrow. The boy had been missing for weeks, though his father showed no signs of giving up on the search—posters lined every street, every radio and TV station called for help in finding the golden boy of the Agreste family. However, the posters were faded and peeling, the broadcasts were decreasingly frequent, and while his father remained fervent in his search, the rest of Paris was starting to give up.

Born into the Seelie faerie royal family, there was no doubt that the publicity on Adrien's sudden disappearance would be explosive. But after so long…. No one cared anymore. They began to move on with their lives, and figured the boy was either a runaway or dead. After all, the Seelie court Prince was a highly valued position, and it was no secret that faeries had countless enemies. Marinette hoped against hope that he was safe, no matter how much the signs pointed towards the opposite. After all, not only was Adrien the Seelie Prince—he was her classmate and crush, too!

An obnoxious yawn brought Marinette out of her thoughts, and she looked away from another poster of Adrien's smiling face to glance down at her feet, where little Chat Noir sat impatiently. The cat eyed the poster with an unrecognizable expression, green eyes shrewd, and began to weave himself between Marinette's legs instead. The blue eyed girl couldn't help but roll her eyes as she had to watch her footing to keep from tripping over the tiny cat, but when she stumbled for the third time in order to avoid stepping on his paws, she huffed and reached down to pluck him from the street. Purring filled her ears as she approached the school, and the smug look her familiar gave her told her that he'd done that on purpose.

_Lazy alley cat! _Marinette thought, but she allowed him to settle into a more comfortable position in her arms despite his obvious manipulation as she approached Alya, her best friend-slash-werewolf.

"Prince Charming at it again, huh?" Alya laughed as she spotted the all-too-pleased cat in Marinette's arms. The cat puffed himself up, brushing his furry face against Marinette's collar bone and neck with what Marinette figured was a show of false affection. Alya dared not reach out to pet him; being a werewolf, it was only natural that she didn't get along with cats, even the magical type, and Chat was no different. Sure, he was amicable enough with her, but the cat absolutely refused to let anyone touch him save Marinette or Nino—the only other Warlock/Witch in her year. Even then, Nino sometimes found himself on the opposite side of Chat's claws, should he find the familiar to be in a particularly stinky mood, and Marinette would end up apologizing profusely even as the young Warlock cast a healing spell on his fresh cuts with ease.

"Always!" Marinette rolled her eyes, ignoring Chat's huff of indignation as she scratched behind his ears to appease him. However, he nearly went flying out of her arms as someone barreled past her, causing Chat to scramble and dig his claws into her arms and shirt to try to avoid being thrown to the concrete. He needn't have worried, of course- as annoying as he was sometimes, Marinette would never allow any harm to come to her kitty, and as such, had tightened her hold and prepared to shield him against the fall, but Alya was quick on the uptake and stabilized her before she could hit the ground. A quick glance around and a retreating blonde figure told the girls all they needed to know, and while Alya shouted in anger at Chloe for her rudeness, Marinette was more focused on the aggravated kitty in her arms.

"Are you okay, Chat?" she asked, stroking his soft mane soothingly. He relaxed, but a quick glance at the blood now oozing from the cuts on her arms earned a guilty look and extra nuzzles instead of a verbal response. He didn't like to risk talking in public, not when there were enemies lurking on every corner, but Marinette took no offense to this. "It's alright, kitty! It's just a scratch," she reassured him, but she hesitated to perform a simple healing incantation. With her luck, it would backfire and deepen the wounds to the point of needing stitches!

"Geez, she sure is on the warpath lately, huh?" a voice said behind her, Nino appearing seemingly out of nowhere. The girls smiled in greeting at their friend. Before, they rarely hung out, but after Adrien's disappearance, the girls welcomed Nino into their group with open arms. Without his best friend, the friendly Druid was just miserable, and Marinette couldn't stand to see anyone suffer. Nino's honey eyes glanced over the cuts on Marinette, and with a kind look, he uttered a simple incantation and waved his hand over the cuts. A green light shown, reminding Marinette of the very nature he drew his magic from, and the cuts and pain vanished with nary a trace, if it weren't for the lingering blood on her pale skin.

"Thanks, Nino!" Marinette said sheepishly, but he waved her off. Her friends knew her struggles with magic and did their best to encourage her, but it was safe to say they drew a line when it came to her being hurt. "It seems I'm Chloe's favorite target more than ever…" She fumed, but her kitty's purring calmed her anger somewhat. The Unseelie princess, Chloe Bourgeois, had been bad before the Seelie Adrien's disappearance, but now she was downright insufferable. Her insults and jabs had never bothered Marinette before – it wasn't the first time someone had called her a half-breed – but lately, all Chloe could do was sneer about Mari's human father and Witch mother, and she had to admit it was getting old. As a purebred Unseelie herself, Chloe was the very picture of perfection and malicious intent, but after weeks of bullying and no sign of the kindhearted Seelie boy's return, the girls had just about had enough. Nino was patient as ever, though – perhaps due to his Druid lineage? – and he only shook his head in pity as the fae sauntered off.

"I'm so close to clawing her throat out," groaned Alya as the trio made their way to their lockers, flashing her pointed fangs and claws pointedly in the direction of the fae who now stood with her Changeling friend, Sabrina, in the courtyard. The werewolf was usually pretty laid-back when it came to Chloe, much like their Druid tag-along, but things were drawing to an ugly crescendo. "One more 'wet dog' joke and I'm going to lose it, girl!"

Marinette giggled at her friend's antics despite herself. "You'd just be giving her what she wants, Alya… we should focus on more important things anyway, like finding Adrien! Speaking of, did you find anything out about that Locator spell, Nino?" she asked as she pulled out her books.

"A bit… but it's nothing that his father hasn't already tried, I'm sure. At this point, I'm pretty sure only a spell sanctioned by Tikki herself would find him. I wonder if she's chosen her next Disciple, yet?" he wondered aloud, causing Marinette to flush and stammer. She'd chosen her Disciple, alright, but Marinette felt like a serious downgrade from her elegant, skilled mother who had come before her. Seriously, who needed their Druid friend to heal their wounds when they were the inheritor of the most powerful light magic in the world?

Of course, Marinette could never tell this to her friends, no matter how much she wanted to. As the holder of Tikki's Miraculous, and a particularly unskilled Witch, Marinette would only be putting her loved ones and herself in danger. That being said, it wasn't entirely unknown that the Dupain-Cheng family's patron Deity was Tikki herself, bringing luck and prosperity to every member. Likewise, Adrien's family followed Tikki's polar opposite, Plagg, who was thought to be the bringer of chaos and bad luck. Marinette happened to think that he just got a bad rep, not that she'd admit that to anyone.

Patron deities were common in every household, but few could bolster the favor of Tikki and Plagg, the Yin and Yang of the Kwami circle of power. As Witches are well-known as the Protectors of Peace and Balance in their communities, it was a given that Tikki would favor the gentle, easy-going Dupain-Chengs, but Marinette couldn't quite wrap her head around the idea that a Kwami as chaotic as Plagg would patron someone as kind and gentle as Adrien Agreste. Even his father, ever the recluse, gave the impression of someone cool, collected and organized, even as he searched frantically for his lost son. The Kwami only chose one family to patron at a time, and it is these families that became the leaders of their respective "Supernatural" circles. Among these families, they occasionally chose Disciples, such as Marinette, who would inherit their magical abilities and become icons among their kind, but this wasn't always the case. Nooroo, the Kwami of Transmission, was one such an example, as he patroned Juleka's vampire family, chose Hawkmoth as his Disciple – though none agreed that the choice was well-made. Like Marinette, Hawkmoth kept his true identity a secret, though he was decidedly more wicked and cruel than Marinette thought she'd ever be capable of. Honestly, he gave Disciples a bad name! She wondered if it was possible that Kwami could make mistakes despite being the closest thing they had to gods… and if she was one of them.

Chat shook her out of her thoughts by leaping from her arms and winding himself around her legs, rubbing himself against her pants and meowing pathetically to try to catch her attention. Smiling at her silly kitty, Marinette shut her locker and followed her friends to their classroom, settling herself beside Alya as Nino sat in front of them and turned in his seat to spend the last few minutes before class chatting with the Werewolf. Chloe entered soon thereafter, flanked by Sabrina and sneering at Marinette and her friends as she made her way to her seat. Instead of being annoyed, however, Marinette noted the way Chloe's eyes lingered on Adrien's empty seat beside Nino and grew slightly cloudy and felt herself start to feel bad for the fae. Being the Seelie and Unseelie Prince and Princess, it was no surprise Adrien and Chloe grew up together and were rather close. Some people even whispered about the possibility of a marriage linking their families in the future, though Marinette sincerely doubted it. She just couldn't picture Adrien with someone so… so…

"Meow?" an inquiring voice came, and Marinette shook herself once more to find Chat perched on her desk in front of her. Her friends chatted away, seemingly occupying themselves by brainstorming other spells and ideas to find Adrien, but Chat only had eyes for her.

"Sorry, kitty," Marinette began, biting her lip, "I was just thinking about Adrien…" she admitted, drawing Alya and Nino's attention.

"We'll find him, Marinette." Nino reassured her, his eyes kind. "Alya and I were thinking – your mom used to be Tikki's Disciple, right? Maybe she could help us find a spell or something to find him?" he asked hopefully. Marinette shook her head.

"I already asked her," she answered sadly, "and we tried, but… you know me. The spell backfired. It just led to my room, can you believe it?" She huffed. Chat gave her a look, which she ignored, not wanting to deal with his sassiness at the moment. At the disappointed looks her friends failed to hide, Marinette couldn't help but feel bad for shooting them down. "I guess we could… try again? Maybe if Chat is in the room with us this time, my magic will be more stable!"

The cat puffed himself up in response, but Madame Bustier entered before anyone could continue the discussion. Resigned to another class about the history and origin of Nightwalkers – aka Vampires, Wendigos and the like – Marinette nudged her familiar to the side so she could begin to take notes. It was going to be a long day.


End file.
